As a youth he was converted to Buddhism, but he returned
to Hinduism and became a great defender of Vedic philosophy.

Kumarila was instrumental for developing the old vedic
Brahmanism into Hinduism by using the concept of trinity. That
meant the worship of three universal gods: Brahma the Creator,
Vishnu the Preserver and Shiva the Destroyer.

He also debated Buddhist and Jain teachers. He hoped, through his
revival Hinduism, to keep these two religions from spreading
to South India.